Why Batman Isn’t Green Lantern

Batman has a lot of will power, Green Lantern’s ring runs on will power, but Batman wasn’t chosen to be Green Lantern. Why not? I asked this question before and was told the DCU had coughed up some story establishing that Batman’s brand of will power had too much fear in its composition; Hal Jordan, by contrast, isn’t neurotic or fear-based or whatever the deal is.

A better explanation has been put forward by Grace, girlfriend to Matthew Surridge. Matthew gives the lowdown: “As she put it, Batman scores a ten out of ten on the score of ‘willpower,’ but probably no better than a three of out of ten at best on the count of ‘doing whatever the Guardians of the Universe tell him to do, when they tell him, in the way they tell him.”

Note that Grace doesn’t even read comics. She got her theory from watching the Justice League animated cartoon series. Not bad!

25 Comments

Don’t most of the heroes have a lot of willpower? I’d think that’d be a prerequisite for calling yourself a superhero. I like Grace’s theory, but to be honest, I think the Guardians just like ’em good and dumb.

Is there any way to respond to this without sounding like a fanboy in a tizzy?

What you describe is sort of the opposite of what they’ve suggested about Jordan in the actual comics. And, in practice, what they’ve demonstrated about most of the rest of the Earth-originating Lanterns (they’ve made comment about what a pain Earthlings are in the comics from time to time. Which may be why Jordan was the first Earther to be a Lantern).

Didn’t Batman reject a ring or two since the start of the Johns’ run?

I don’t think its necessarily a huge mental exercise to see the complications of how decisions made 50 years ago at National or DC might not make 100% sense in today’s single DCU (or the fanboyishness of “Batman is so awesome! He should have the ring!”). But it also seems a little silly to ascribe character traits to GL that don’t really fit and haven’t since Denny O’Neil wrote the title 40 years ago.

Here’s my theory: Deep inside the HR department on Oa, a small team of Guardians was looking at resumes.

“I really like this Batman fellow. Seems like he’s got all the qualities we need for a Green Lantern.”

A second Guardian chimes in: “According to this, he’s a single parent raising a son. I doubt if he’s going to want to work overtime. Plus look at how much he makes a year. He’s a frickin’ billionaire for crying out loud. We can’t match that salary. Anyone else?”

The third Guardian says: “This Jordon guy is enlisted in the Air Force, so we can get him for peanuts. Plus he’s single, no girlfriend, no kids. And I hear he’s a lefty hitting over .300 in his softball league. We haven’t had a good lefty since Sinestro left.”

The first Guardian like what he hears: “Good call. Now we just have to figure out to let Abin Sur go.

The second Guardian smiles: “I know. Let’s give Abin that crappy space ship to use. Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll quit out of frustration.”

“Is there any way to respond to this without sounding like a fanboy in a tizzy?”

Yes. Check out Kurt Busiek’s comments in the thread I linked to. The other guys too, come to think of it.

“the fanboyishness of ‘Batman is so awesome! He should have the ring!'”

He’s supposed to have more will power than most superheroes. That’s why he’s up there with Superman when he doesn’t have any special powers. As to his degree of awesomeness, I’ll leave that to you and the other entirely non-fanboys.

Sort of to my point, Tom. To stoop to actually read these comics in the comment section is to be dismissed as fannish and therefore unable to contribute.

“Yes. Check out Kurt Busiek’s comments in the thread I linked to. The other guys too, come to think of it.”

I did read Busiek’s discussion and felt that while he did a good job constructing his argument, that his points were more or less obvious.

Nothing I read on the topic here suggested anybody had read the actual GL comics of late. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Its not incorrect to pose the point that Batman is “up there with Superman when he doesn’t have any special powers” has more to do with the fact that most people really, really like Batman than anything else. and why not? Its been that way for 70 years, and the writers have done a good job of explaining how and why, in context.

I’m just not sure that supersedes what the writers have explained about GL selection or reader character preference.

“Sort of to my point, Tom. To stoop to actually read these comics in the comment section is to be dismissed as fannish and therefore unable to contribute.”

That’s your point? What is it based on?

“Its not incorrect to pose the point that Batman is ‘up there with Superman when he doesn’t have any special powers’ has more to do with the fact that most people really, really like Batman than anything else. … Its been that way for 70 years, and the writers have done a good job of explaining how and why, in context.”

Yes, and the writers do that by playing up Batman’s will power! This isn’t complicated. All of us understand that the market is the underlying reason DC treats Batman as Superman’s peer. But we’re not talking about DC corporate decisions here. We’re talking about what goes on within the stories published and sold by DC. And those stories make a fair amount of noise about Batman’s sense of mission, his implacable determination, his relentless self-training — about his damn will power.

At the risk of beating a dead horse: Yes, I read GL currently. I am a fanboy. And I don’t necessarily even disagree, but I’m comfortable with “it is what it is”, and don’t feel its any different from ther fannish questions.

To his credit, Johns has addressed the issue at hand in recent issues of Green Lantern. I believe around issue 9 or 10, the most recent series raised the question rather concretely with hal offering Batman the ring. And, most recently, with Batman actually having the willpower to turn down a yellow ring (prior to Sinestro Corps War), which one would assume is no mean feat.

The answer may not be entirely satisfactory, but Johns understood it was a question and took it on as part of his sprawling relaunch of GL. The long and short of it from a narrative standpoint was that Batman relies too much on fear and wallowing in his own misery to pass the psych eval for the GL Corps (but the Sinestro Corps was happy to have him).

Can you point that out without being dismissed as a fanboy?

And you asked, so:

After keeping up with the site for a few months, intentional or not, the general feeling is that you guys aren’t reading anything current from Marvel or DC. That’s not your bag, and that’s fine.

Not actually responding to a few of my points, and instead discussing my status as fanboy doesn’t do much to convince me that discussion is welcome. Why do you think I tried to open with a self-effacing comment?

I occasionally dip into current Marvel and DC releases, especially all ages titles (for my son.) I just read some of Gail Simone’s Wonder Woman, which I presume counts. Tom read Civil War, I know, and will occasionally look at other stuff for his TCJ column.

The idea that Batman can’t use the ring because he’s a psycho is pretty entertaining. Though I was just looking at some of Geoff Jones’ run on Teen Titans, and I have to say I found it pretty repulsively sententious.

Re: fanboyishness or lack thereof. I don’t know what you’re talking about exactly. Is there a particular comments thread where you felt somebody was unfairly dismissed? You came in awfully defensive and somewhat confrontational, and Tom poked you a little — but I don’t think we have any more prejudice against super-hero fans in general than against anybody else. Bill did a post just recently making fun of manga purists, for example. I said meaner things about Jeff Brown than I’d say about pretty much any mainstream title I’ve read. We’re kind of mean to everybody, in short. I don’t think you need to feel singled out.

Hi, League. I would say this is all about tone. I didn’t like yours, you didn’t like mine. But if, when the smoke clears, the point at hand is simply that you know current Green Lantern continuity and that you think my question flies in the face of that continuity, then fine. Knowledge is always appreciated. You can just say, “Actually, in issue xc, the writers did xcxcxc,” or whatever.

“Not actually responding to a few of my points, and instead discussing my status as fanboy”

What was I responding to? This: your phrase “the fanboyishness of ‘Batman is so awesome! He should have the ring!'” No mention by me of fanboys in the post or comments until then.

batman is not a green lantern because he would not follow what the guardians tell him what to do, even though he has a lot of will power, he is also has a lot of power to instill fear,that is one of the reasons that the sinestro corps were trying to recruit him

Batman may be strong in will, but the problem is that Batman still has fear issues that he hasn't worked out. His constant flashbacks and nightmares of his parents are a testament to this. When a Green Lantern has fear in his heart, it makes him vulnerable (example: Jack T. Chance).

Besides, whats better for Earth: having Batman with a Green Lantern ring, or leaving Batman alone and augmenting a separate, non-powered individual?

Anyway, the real alternative candidate isn't Bruce Wayne, its Kal-El. Kal-El truly is without fear and possesses great willpower. Once again however, I think the Guardians recognized that Earth would benefit more from having a completely new person use the Green Lantern ring as opposed to augmenting an existing superhero.

Honestly, the reason they don't give Batman superpowers is the same reason that they do not have batman become a villain: He'd win.

Seriously, He has no superpowers, and worries every superhero ever put on a team with him, including superman. I remember in one particular run, Superman attempted to take over the Earth (for it's own good, no red kryptonite or mind control involved), and it came down to a final battle.

Bats goes toe-to-toe with Superman, wielding the green kryptonite bullet Supes had once given him, to stop him in just such an event. Supes manages to catch Batman's punch, which means the fight is pretty much over from there…. Until Green Lantern creates a pineapple sized hunk of green kryponite. Why? Because Batman had the stray thought before battle that the lantern ring should be able to do it.

Now imagine him with absolute knowledge of what the ring does? The first thing he would do is test for weaknesses, and work out that whole yellow problem. From that point, he would stress test the ring to its absolute limits, to know its utmost capacity, the same as he does with his gear.

Next, he would observe the Ion powers, the natural evolution of the Green Lantern powers. Can anyone see how bad this would be for the world? There would be no way, shy of multiple extra-dimensional superpowers combining forces to take him down specifically, and one of them would need to be an alternate universe batman, just to make it a basically even fight.

The answer is simple… batman refuses the ring period. He believes too much power will lead to miss use “for the betterment of the world” and he believes this applies to himself also. So he refuses!!! Thats why he will always remain human and why all other heroes dont look too kindly on him. Although he has been known to temporarily done on such power but always refuses to keep it.

I like the sound of that — if anyone could turn down the Ring of Power, it’s Batman. The corollary is that he would always be watching Green Lantern, waiting for him to turn rogue, and he’d have some sort of elaborate Take Down Green Lantern plan ready to go.

i thought the same thing, i thought batman would be the perfect choice because no only does he have alot of will power but his fears were taken away by the league of shadows in his training. so my thoughts were sinse he has no fear at all he must be the best choice for a power ring?